Monday, 5 October 2026

Topics: migration; inflation; private credit; Josh Frydenberg.

E&OE……………………..

Sharri Markson: Let’s turn to federal politics, and joining me is Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson. Tim, great to see you. Look, I just want to start with your reaction to my revelations tonight that Josh Frydenberg was urged by his Liberal colleagues to challenge Scott Morrison for the leadership prior to the 2022 election. Do you think he should have?

Tim Wilson: Well, it's all in history now, Sharri, and so, you can navel-gaze and say, ‘maybe if he had have done that, it would have been a different outcome,’ it probably would have been, in what trajectory, I don't know. I've heard these revelations, obviously, before, and so, I think it's part of the challenge of always confronting the past is you always hope for the best in the set of circumstances. Had he done so would have gone in a different direction, but in the end, the party room decided they'd continue on and, of course, we've had the consequences thereafter.

Sharri Markson: Given where the Coalition is in the polls, would you like to see Frydenberg return to politics? Do you think he's needed?

Tim Wilson: I think it would be good if Josh returned to politics, you know, we're going to hopefully win the next election under a Taylor-led leadership, and of course, I think it's really important to have strong capable people contributing to the future of the country, and frankly, at a time like this, Sharri, where there are so many problems confronting our country and more importantly, our very basic sense of social and national unity is in such a frayed way. What we need is people to come together and contribute and sacrifice for the best interests of the country. A lot of Labor politicians to be frank, don't seem to be in it for the goodwill of the nation, we need Liberals to be standing up and contributing towards building a better Australia.

Sharri Markson: I'm going to come back to the Coalition's fortunes in a moment given you just said that you expect Angus Taylor will win government at the next election. But there's just been a breaking news story from Paul Sakkal in the Sydney Morning Herald. He says that you are announcing the immigration policy tomorrow and that the plan is to slash migration to one third of the current intake and that net migration would be down to 100,000 in the first year, should you win. Can you tell us about this policy?

Tim Wilson: Well, we’ll be making a formal announcement, once it goes through its proper processes. I think it's been in the public realm that we have a party room meeting tomorrow to discuss exactly these sorts of issues, so I won't front-run it. But our position on migration has been consistent. We want people to come to our country, to commit to our country and contribute to our country, and, when it comes to our migration policy, what we want to do is make sure we're not just getting the skills we need, we need them to be going where we need them to be going, we need people to be treating Australia as a home, not a hotel, and what we want to do is make sure that the best interest of Australians is factored into our migration policy. But any further details will of course be announced by Angus Taylor as part of our comprehensive plan, not just to take back government, but more importantly to build the future of this great nation.

Sharri Markson: But is that the number you're looking at 100,000 in the first year? That would be lower than One Nation.

Tim Wilson: Well, as I said, these are decisions and these are announcements that will be made by Angus Taylor once it has gone through its proper processes. But there's no ambiguity that we've been looking at pathways to reduce migration, to make sure that it's a sustainable program linked to housing, because we believe very strongly that if Australians can't be housed, we can't be bringing non-Australians into our country also competing for that housing. So, we have a comprehensive plan that we are focused on delivering, which is going to protect Australia's national interest, work for Australia and of course, its economy, as well as its people, and provides a pathway for economic, social and cultural integration so that migration is actually in Australia's national interest.

Sharri Markson: Given One Nation has been soaring in the polls, partly off the back of its migration position, is this though a move from you, from Angus Taylor and the Coalition to go harder than One Nation on migration?

Tim Wilson: Our focus is to make sure that Australia's migration plan is working in Australia's national interest. We've got an uncosted, non-detailed policy from One Nation, we've got a policy from the Labor party, which basically means that our farmers won’t have…

Sharri Markson: But just to confirm you’re going to go lower than them, you'll be taking in fewer migrants than One Nation in the first year?

Tim Wilson: As I said, Sharri, the announcement of our policy will be done by Angus Taylor as part of a comprehensive plan and that will be done after it goes through its proper processes. But when we've got an uncosted, un-detailed policy from One Nation, we've got a policy from Labor that is focused on starving farmers of the labour force they need, our focus is on how we bring people and get them to come to our country, commit to our country and contribute to our country, so our migration program advances Australia's national interest, and numbers will be part of that, but it's only one part of it.

Sharri Markson: All right, all right. You've written a piece in The Nightly this evening about how you say that Labor has ignored years of economic warnings. You say Australia has followed the folly of populist progressive policy put into practice that it's left our nation exposed. You're saying the economy has been poorly managed since the Howard era. So, are you including Liberal shortcomings in this since then?

Tim Wilson: Well, what I'm arguing is that there are times when Coalition governments in years past should have actually changed policy and wound back some measures of Labor governments in years past. We've done some of it, some were blocked by the Senate, but when you have progressive populist policies legislated by the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era and we can't then repeal them, yes, they've continued on. We know that. We know the budget is in an unsustainable position on its current trajectory. We have 40 years of deficits into the future. We also have a massive inflation problem that's been stoked by government spending and borrowing from the future to feed today, and what we've also got now, more and more is a bubbling up of private credit risk, which we've concentrated risk in the economy away from sharing it across the banking sector into private credit and there's increasing alarm bells going off there and then that bubbles up to becoming a problem for the broader economy and financial risk for everybody.

Sharri Markson: All right, Tim Wilson, thank you very much for coming in. Really appreciate your time.

[ENDS]